The modern history of firearms development includes numerous efforts to reduce the problems of recoil and climb and swing in firing of rifles and handguns. Reactive forces caused by the rapid exit of the propulsive gasses produced in the firing process typically cause the weapon to recoil against the body of the user, and when the force vector of that recoil is applied off of the shooter's center of mass, such as would be the case when the shooter's shoulder is the support point of a rifle, a moment arm between the contact point and the center of mass develops which causes the weapon typically to swing outward and upward relative to the shooter's body, necessitating reaiming and reducing accuracy. Many devices have been developed to attach to the muzzle of a firearm to redirect the exit gasses either to produce an opposite antirecoil force or to produce countering thrust vectors to compensate for swing and climb, or both an accompanying problem with such muzzle brakes which redirect gas forces has been intensification or lack of reduction of undesirable flash effects in which the hot incandescent exit gasses produced a burst of flame which can distract and partially blind the shooter as well as disclose his position in a combative situation. These problems have been recognized and discussed exhaustively in the industry, see for instance, Article entitled Vector Compensators, October, 1983 Soldier of Fortune Magazine, evaluating and comparing the instant device.
Typical examples of prior art are Cutts U.S. Pat. No. 1,636,357 Anticlimb Device disclosing an accessory muzzle device including ports for redirection of exit gasses from an antichamber forward of the rifle barrel. Kaltmann U.S. Pat. No. 3,710,683 Muzzle Brake With Flash Hider discloses a ported vector compensator with an additional conical expansion chamber to disperse incandescent gasses.
The angle of the dispersion cone relative to the bore center line is a critical factor in design of a dispersion type flash hider. While it can be readily determined usually empirically what the optimum dispersion cone design angle should be in a given application, the dispersion angle may not be so easily maintained in practice because the gas flow pattern and boundary layer buildup in the passageway will change the effective dispersion angle. This effect necessitates venting the dispersion cone through the sidewalls without destroying the integrity of the cone itself to the extent that the flash would again be exposed. Thus it is an object of the within invention to provide a muzzle brake with a dispersion-type flash hider that will include a means to maintain the optimum design exit throat shape by eliminating the restrictive effect of the boundary layer buildup in a flash hider.